1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cooking containers, particularly, containers adapted to cooking a particular style of instant noodle.
2. Description of Related Art
A popular style of quick cooking noodles are sold as blocks of dried noodles. In the U.S. the most common type of instant noodle product is marketed variously as Japanese style noodles, or “ramen” or “ramen-style” noodles, named after the Japanese dish of the same name, and on which the product is generally based.
The noodles themselves are often flavored, commonly using meat-based flavors, such as chicken, pork and beef. Other common flavorings include mushroom, shrimp, roast beef, roast chicken, chili, chili lime, vegetable, and “oriental” (flavored with soy sauce or some similar flavoring agent).
In the United States, this style of instant noodles were introduced by Nissin Foods in 1971 and were initially marketed as “Oodles of Noodles.” In 1972, Nissin Foods introduced “Nissin Cup Noodles” in a pre-packaged heat-resistant foam cups, which led to an upsurge in popularity of instant noodles. Competing products by other companies were soon available. Today, however, the most popular version of dried noodles are the block style noodles sold by Nissin Foods in the United States and marketed as Top Ramen®. Nissin enjoys net sales of over $3.2 billion per year.
The most commonly marketed versions of such ramen noodle products is sold as a rectangular block of dry pressed noodles, which cook quickly in boiling water to a mass of soft thin noodles. These ramen-style noodle products are typically packaged with additions, such as a packets of flavoring, dried vegetables, seasoning oil, and the like.
This form of ramen noodles is extremely popular among students and other people of low income, due to the unusually low cost (a six-pack of instant noodles can often be found for less than US$1), and ease of preparation. The noodles are particularly popular with children, students and young adults. They provide and a quick and satisfying meal that is relatively simple in preparation.
The three major brands of instant ramen noodles are Nissin® Top Ramen®, Maruchan® Ramen, and Sapporo Ichiban®. Other brands with similar block style noodles are sold, for instance Shirakiku Brand® Japanese Style Noodle, from Japan, and Crying Tiger™ Ramen Noodle Soup, imported from China.
Maruchan Inc. is a well-known American producer of ramen noodles and related products. Maruchan Inc. produces over 3.6 billion packages of Ramen Noodle Soup a year and now has three manufacturing plants, two in Irvine, Calif. and one in Richmond, Va.
Sapporo Ichiban is a brand of instant noodles (most of them ramen) made by Sanyo Foods, and rivals to other Japanese ramen brands like Nissin and Maruchan.
Certain forms of precooked noodles can be rehydrated by adding boiling water to a provided package. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,088, a container packed with instant food for use in microwave oven is provided, having a container body prepackaged with noodles to be prepared, and a lid. In this product, the noodles and container are sold together, and the container is disposable after a single use. Similarly United States Application 2003/0068411 provides a packaged noodle product adapted to be cooked in its own bowl.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,918, a microwavable pasta product is presented packaged in a special bowl, and with claims directed to the composition of the pasta, a composition allowing the production of the noodles in the microwave without clumping or sticking together.
The block forms of the dried noodles are usually eaten after being simmered in boiling water for anything from 3 up to about 6 minutes, and then transferred to a serving container. After adding the time required to prepare the boiling water, the noodles are not truly “instant”. On a typical stove top it requires at least about 6 minutes to prepare the boiling water. Adding this to the time to cook the noodles, and a total of 12 or minutes minutes may be necessary to prepare a package for eating.
For a busy student or hungry child this can seem a long time, longer than necessary to prepare, say, a peanut butter sandwich. Further, for a very young person, the preparation can be fraught with dangers associated with the use of the stove top, requiring both the preparation of boiling water and transfer of liquids between containers, which increases the chances of spills and accidental burnings.
Microwave instructions are not typically included in the instructions on a noodle packet. When attempting to accelerate the process in a microwave, the square noodle package will not fit in the typical circular serving bowl, such as a cereal bowl. Any such attempt creates a mess as the consumer the noodles must be broken to fit into the circular bowl.
Other microwave cooking suggestions for pasta are not easily adapted for ramen style block noodles. In United States Patent Application 2010/0263552 and U.S. Design Pat. No. 638,701, elaborate constructions are provided for microwave noodle cooking containers that utilize lids that act as colanders, or provide internal colanders to allow cooking of pasta in a volume of water and then easy draining of the product.
Other inventions highlight the problems of getting even cooking of the noodles in the microwave. U.S. Pat. No. 7,067,780, provides a container for cooking pasta in a microwave oven that has a compartment to contain the pasta cooking water and a stirrer for moving the pasta during cooking.
Many of these noodle products and container designs highlight the difficulty of retrieving hot cooked noodles out of the microwave, as the heating of the microwave can produce superheated water, and hence it can be a dangerous task. They also attempt to solve the problem of moving the pasta within the container so that the water heated by the microwave will evenly cook all noodles, and not have portions that are uncooked or clumped together.
However, none of the pasta microwave cooking containers seem well adapted to the quick-cooking small and soft ramen style noodles.